It's All Fun and Games

...until someone loses a tooth!

Notice anything missing here?

A few days ago I noticed that Bryce's top two front teeth were beginning to become loose.  They weren't real loose, just starting.  I figured it would be a few weeks still before he lost his two front teeth.  Well, it may have been that way except for the fact that today he got a little help with getting them out quickly.

Have you ever played Monkey in the Middle.  It's a game where there are 3 players, two on the outside and one in the middle.  The two on the outside throw a ball to each other and try to keep it away from the one in  the middle.  Well, this morning just after breakfast, I was in cleaning up the dishes and one of the boys said, Mom, Bryce's lip is bleeding.  Well, me being the great mom that I am, said okay and kept going with what I was doing. In my defense though, Bryce's lips often become chapped and I just figured that it was bleeding a little from that and that whoever had said that would just wipe it off for him.  

A couple of seconds later I heard a few things that caught my attention a bit more.  Things like, "hold his head to the side, so he doesn't choke on the blood." and "wow, that is a lot of blood!"  and "where is all that blood coming from?"  I grabbed some paper towels and quickly headed over to investigate.  

I went into the family room and saw Bryce with his mouth and chin covered in blood.  I quickly lifted him into my lap and began cleaning him up, trying to see where the blood was coming from.  I asked the boys what had happened and they said he got hit in the face with a ball.  What?!   I would ask more questions about that in a minute...once I figured out where the blood was coming from.  Then someone, I think it was John, asked if his tooth was missing.  I wiped his upper lip a little more, looked a little closer and sure enough, there was a tooth missing.  The boys looked on the floor where Bryce had been lying and there it was, a little tooth.  The tooth next to it is still attached, but I'm pretty sure it will be coming out very soon.  It is much looser than it was before!  Luckily these teeth were still baby teeth.

It ends up that the boys had decided to play Monkey in the Middle while they waited for General Conference to start.  They choose a soft ball "just in case it hit someone".  

Good plan!  Well, William was throwing it to Jacob and wanted to be sure Spencer couldn't get it, so he threw it nice and hard.  Let's just say, Spencer did not get the ball, but neither did Jacob!  Somehow the poor, innocent, other monkey who happened to be in the middle caught the ball...with his face! That is one way to get rid of some teeth fast!

He keeps moving that other tooth with his tongue, but puts up a stink if I try to get in there to get at it!

Another First Day

Today it was Bryce's turn to try out his new school for the first day.  He sounded kind of junky when he first woke up this morning, but otherwise seemed fine, so he went off to school.

I met with his teacher, Jaime, and his one-to-one aide, Teresa, for a little bit before school to go over all the basics of Bryce care.  Everyone that I have met who will work with the kids at the school seems wonderful and are very excited to work with Bryce and Annalise.  Teresa used to work as a Para at Ryan Elementary in one of the self contained classrooms, so she knows were Bryce is coming from.  She assured me that I am going to love it here at LIFE after working with Ryan.  That is nice.  She seems like she will be great with Bryce.

When I returned to school I was told that Bryce did well and seemed to enjoy himself there.  They said his favorite part of the day was Gym where he got to go down the big slide.  Yeah, I think he is going to love it there!

Annalise also enjoyed her day.  She spent this afternoon singing new songs that she is learning.  Both of the kiddos were very tired out by this evening.  They were both asleep before 7:30.  I think they worked and played hard at school today.  A great combination!

Before school, I tried to take some pictures of Bryce and Annalise together.  Neither of them was really into picture taking.  Bryce would absolutely not look at me and Annalise...well, she was just in her happy little world! 

New School of LIFE

So the write up of how we got to this point is still in the works, but as of today, Annalise is the newest student of LIFE Academy.

She and Bryce were both supposed to start today, but since he has been sick, Annalise got to be the first one to try out the new school.  We got to school this morning and she walked right up to the front door where her teacher greeted us.  She then said, "have a good day Mom." and walked on in.  She did turn around long enough to let me tell her I loved her, and then she was off for her day.  When I went to pick her up, she was busy working on a puzzle and had to finish that before we could leave.  The teacher and the aide that were in there both said that she was a lot of fun to have in the classroom and "a character".  She is a funny one that's for sure!

It was fun to hear her tell me about her day.  She said that she made new friends, but she didn't know their names.  They must have talked about Halloween being this month because she kept saying that we needed to go home and get ready for Halloween.

Instead we made a quick trip to Target to look for some Hi Tops for her.  We have noticed that she walks a lot better without her AFO's then she does with them.  We think they are just too heavy for her.  Her physical therapists also noticed that and said that perhaps a simple pair of  Hi Tops would give her enough support without needing the full AFO.  She still needs the stretch that the AFO gives, so we will try having her wear them at night and just the Hi Tops during the day.  At least for now until we figure something better out for her.  Not sure how the nighttime thing will go, but we will try it and see.

It was a lot of fun actually going down to buy her a pair of shoes.  I haven't been able to buy her a cute pair of shoes for years.  She didn't like the first few pairs we tried on.  She didn't want anything to do with any boots!  Who knows, maybe she remembers her boots from a year ago that didn't come off for 7 weeks.  She kept saying that she didn't need shoes because she could just go barefoot.  (A girl after my own heart!)  Then we came to some Hi Tops that were black and pink, filled with sparklies, and had Hello Kitty on them.  She was hooked. 
 

Luckily they are adorable and they had them in her size.  I think they were the most expensive shoes I have bought for any of my children so far, but hey...they had sparklies and Hello Kitty...what do you expect?!  We will give them a try tomorrow and see how they work for her.

While at Target, we of course had to walk through the dollar section and while we were there, Annalise spotted something she just had to try on.

She made such a cute witch, I had to take a picture! 

Then we quickly headed home so that she could have OT with Heather and I could meet the boys and start the Tuesday afternoon running around.  Overall a fun afternoon with my girl!  I'm glad she liked school and is looking forward to going back tomorrow.  If all goes well, she and Bryce will be going together!